Certifications & College

Does having certain certs like A+ or Net+ can exempt you from having to take a certain class in a college or university?

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

royal

Depends on the college. Some colleges provide you with credits for having certain certifications and some do not.

cgrimaldo

I think it depends on the college you are going to. Some of my buddies actually got credit for a class or two because of certs they had. He only got credit for them which, obviously doesnt improve or hurt his gpa. You may want to ask your advisor that question. I'm sure exceptions can always be made.

Are you already in college? Have you declared a major yet? If so, do you have a general counselor that was assigned to you or do you have one that is specifically in the I/S dept?

t49

cgrimaldo wrote:

I think it depends on the college you are going to. Some of my buddies actually got credit for a class or two because of certs they had. He only got credit for them which, obviously doesnt improve or hurt his gpa. You may want to ask your advisor that question. I'm sure exceptions can always be made.

Are you already in college? Have you declared a major yet? If so, do you have a general counselor that was assigned to you or do you have one that is specifically in the I/S dept?

I'm not in college yet. I will be going in 2 years.(in a state close like FL).

Thnks for the info, gonna look into that.

Stotic

Most private and state schools (not those ITT tech school types) won't let you bypass a class with a cert because the courses dont originate from the certification, but merely use the certification material as a syllabus. Some teachers award you by giving you an A if you get the certification while in the class. I took a class called Data Communications which was a course that focused on CCNA material and the professor gave you an A on your final if you got the CCNA at least 2 weeks after the end of classes (grades due). You'll find that most big colleges don't use familiar naming conventions that identify with certifications.

Slowhand

My particular school has several classes that track to specific certifications as part of the Computer Information Systems curriculum. The teacher that does almost all the networking classes will give you an "A" in the course if you pass the corresponding exam before the end of the semester your'e enrolled in the class. Of course, he's also willing to give you the grade if you bring proof that you already have done the test, since his logic is that, if you've passed the certification exam, then you've probably already learned just about everything the class has to offer.

In this case, he's willing to give you the grade if you have the cert. Depending on if you're a brand-new student, or one that's been going a while and he's familiar with you, you may or may not have to attend the class to get that grade. Either way, you're always exempt from the final and you always get an "A", so long as you can show proof of certification or passing the test. Luckily, I've been a student there a while, so he let me sign up for classes that would normally have been during my working hours, since I'd taken many of my tests while I was working with the school to revamp its CIS program. The way it all works is on a case-by-case basis, it's up to the school, the department heads, and the individual professors how they want to handle certifications as a means of testing out of credit classes. Talk to your school, see what they say.

ajs1976

The community college I attended gave me credit for a couple of classes because of the certification exams I had taken. It depends on the school, but you should be able to find information on their website.

dtechie

t49 wrote:

Does having certain certs like A+ or Net+ can exempt you from having to take a certain class in a college or university?

I'm going back to college at Univ. of Central Florida in fall with my AA. I'm enrolling in Information Systems Technology. Its for people with AS's, but the dean is working something out with me to use military training towards the lower level tech courses I missed out in on the AS. He said things such as military training, electives previously taken from the university related to computers, and certifications are examples of things that can go towards the 33 lower level tech credit hour requirement. The IST bachelor degree is mainly one thats applied IT- like people with IT certs. Basically a bachelor degree to go with your certs. It does NOT give certs, but it builds off of hands on/cert training you have.

So yes- certs CAN go towards degrees as long as they're related to the program and your dean signs off on it. You'll find most colleges dont have set-in-stone requirements for transfer credits and are reasonable if you know how to haggle with them.

matradley

Slowhand wrote:

My particular school has several classes that track to specific certifications as part of the Computer Information Systems curriculum. The teacher that does almost all the networking classes will give you an "A" in the course if you pass the corresponding exam before the end of the semester your'e enrolled in the class. Of course, he's also willing to give you the grade if you bring proof that you already have done the test, since his logic is that, if you've passed the certification exam, then you've probably already learned just about everything the class has to offer.

I had something similar offered to me in one of my courses in my first semester at college. I obtained my A+ and I was exempted from the final exam and I received 100% on that final exam (worth 20% of my final). It was a help. I also used my A+ to exempt myself from a course in second semester but that was another issue.

ajs1976

Here is an example of what the community college I attended does: http://www.ccac.edu/default.aspx?id=138905

At the time I enrolled, they also accepted NT exams. A lot of the courses had a lot of overlap with specific certifications.

matradley

ajs1976 wrote:

Here is an example of what the community college I attended does: http://www.ccac.edu/default.aspx?id=138905

At the time I enrolled, they also accepted NT exams. A lot of the courses had a lot of overlap with specific certifications.

I see that they undervalue the Network+ in comparison to the i-Net+.

Stotic

If only they knew...

ajs1976

That one didn't make much sense to me. From what I know if the iNet+ the web material was more about basic html and webpage coding. I had to take the CIT255 class and it focues on IIS and its services. It would have mapped very well to the old IIS 4.0 MCP exam.

Megadeth4168

Here is the interesting thing about the Community College I go to... In their course description guide, the specifically mention on a computer repair class that it is used to prepare you for the A+ exam. There is also a networking Concepts class that is used to prepare you for the Network+ exam. The college itself does not allow you to substitute classes with exam though. But......

When i took my Networking Concepts class, the instructor had said on the first day that anyone who took and passed (or already had0 the Network+ certification would receive an instant A in the class and would no long have to attend the class. So, while the college sometimes may not budge on the issue, the instructor for a specific class might.

Slowhand

Megadeth4168 wrote:

When i took my Networking Concepts class, the instructor had said on the first day that anyone who took and passed (or already had0 the Network+ certification would receive an instant A in the class and would no long have to attend the class. So, while the college sometimes may not budge on the issue, the instructor for a specific class might.

This is precisely what my instructor does. The school doesn't officially have a policy on using certifications to satisfy course-requirements, but the teacher feels that if you have the cert then you should, by all rights, already have learned the material and he gives you an "A" for the course.

milliamp

Interesting thread. I think I am going to look to transfer to another school.

ajs1976

I was looking for this thread the other day but could not find it.

Becarefull with getting your certifications transferred in as courses. I did that with my AS, but now that I have transferred the classes to a new school so that I can prusue a BS, the new school is not accepting those credits. Since I am going into a business program, it doesn't matter that much, but if I was in more computer oriented major it would hurt a lot.